Term |
Calmeadow Definition |
| Macro-environment | This category includes general, country-level information that is not specific to policy, legislation, regulation. The Knowledge Bank does not carry generic materials on development theory. |
| Formal Financial Sector | Policy and processes involved with the formal financial sector, including interest rates, exchange rates, inflation, market fragmentation and corrective measures. |
| Policy, Regulation. Supervision, Legislation | This involves all matters that deal with legislation, regulation, supervision and related microfinance policy issues. May include policy issues at the regional and national level (eg. Regarding usury). This section does not include donor or program policy. |
| Informal Sector | Deals with studies on the informal sector and the micro/small enterprise sector inlcuding issues of self-employment. |
| Development Economics | Dealing specifically with the development economics only as it may affect the microfinance sector (financial crisis analysis; trade; contributions of the informal sector to the national economy) |
| Local Government | Legislated village, town, municipal and county governing bodies (micro-governing bodies) and their policies or participation in microfinance |
| Financial Crisis | Banking crises, structural adjustment policies, economic recessions and restructuring that create unstable and volatile economic climates, fiscal profligacy, exchange rate mismanagement, international financial shocks, financial liberalisation, and weakness in the domestic banking sector. |
Term |
Calmeadow Definition |
| Ideologies of Lending | General and theoretical discussions comparing or describing the various approaches to lending. Topics dealing individually with each ideology would be found under the respective names such as microenterprise development. |
| Community Economic Development | Normally used by North American organizations, the focus is supporting communities with goals of creating local employment, preventing rural-urban flight and strengthening long term linkages within the community. Microfinance and microenterprise development may be part of these strategies. |
| Microenterprise Development | Organizations in this category are most concerned about fostering and strengthening a particular microenterprise activity. These may include the non-timber forest subsector, craft/garment subsector, agricultural, small industry and export subsectors. |
| Poverty Lending | Here the focus is on poverty reduction and empowerment of vulnerable groups. Usually, this method attempts to identify the causes of poverty and address them with a range of strategies, one of which would be microfinancial services. The target market is the poorest households in a certain geographic area. |
| Microfinance | The purpose of these organizations is the extension of institutional financial services to those who are not currently serviced. Microfinance includes the provision of credit, savings and increasingly additional financial services such as foreign exchange, insurance and money transfers. |
Term |
Calmeadow Definition |
| Financing | This section compares ways of financing or sources of finance for microfinance operations generally. . |
| Apex Scheme | Wholesale financing, second-tier lending, on-lending. |
| Investment Fund | Commercial investment in microfinance. |
| Guarantee Fund | Also known as bridge funds. A guarantee fund can provide the organization's initial access to the formal financial sector, strengthen the organization's capabilities as financial intermediaries and provide important leverage in terms of lending capability. |
| Social Investment | This section deals with private investment in socially or enviromentally-oriented loan funds such as the Calvert Group's work. |
| Capital Markets | This section explores private investment by commercial banks and corporate institutions in the microfinance sector, as well as access to capital markets |
| Donors | Donor policies on supporting the microfinancial sector. |
Term |
Calmeadow Definition |
| Institutional Types | Comparisons or general discussion about institutional arrangements, partnerships and linkages for microfinance that are not specific to a type of institution |
| Credit Unions (including Credit Cooperatives) | Community-based, financial co-operatives that are normally democratic and non-profit, with savings mechanisms and lower interest loans. Members invest in shares, giving them certain entitlements (eg. Election of boards or voting on policy). |
| Microloan Funds | Community loan funds or microcredit revolving funds in North America or Europe. |
| Regulated Microfinancial Institutions | Regulated institutions offering microfinancial services such as BancoSol, Mibanco, Grameen Bank, ADEMI. This section would include non-bank financial institutions that are regulated by special laws. |
| Downscaling | Formal financial institutions that offer a microfinance window such as Vancity Credit Union or Hatten Bank. This process is called downscaling. |
| Postal Outlets | Postal outlets often offer microfinancial services in Africa.and Europe |
| Self-Help Groups | These are organizations that are used as a foundation to formalize credit and savings operations such as trust banks and/or village banks |
| Development Bank | Generally country-owned and state-based, these banks offered agricultural credit originally and have moved to offer microfinancial services. |
| Non-Governmental Organizations | This term will not be listed for each NGO in the database as there are too many. This section deals with materials discussing the role, benefits or drawbacks of the NGO as a vehicle for offering microfinancial services. |
| Technical Assistance | Exchange of knowledge, product and services and management technology between technical service providers and microfinancial institutions. |
| Traditional Finance Schemes | Pawnbrokers, rotating savings and credit associations, individual savings groups, tontines |
| Transformation | Upscaling to non-bank financial intermediary or commercial bank, institutional graduation. |
| Networks | Affiliate members within a community of organizations. This section discusses the importance of networking to support microfinance, the role of networks and how to set up a network. |
| Institutional Linkages | Interorganizational networking, communication, coordination |
Term |
Calmeadow Definition |
| General Management | General management issues deal with the overall operations, governance and policies of the institution. This key term is used for manuals and other general guides which span a number of management areas. |
| Interest Rate Setting | This key term is used for resources specifically related to setting interest rates for microfinance products. |
| Client Desertion | This key term deals with analysis of client exiting and desertion. |
| Financial Management | Financial management is a broad topic in microfinance operation management including interest rate setting, revenue generation, cost analysis, delinquency management, profit centres, credit bureaus and general accounting. |
| Human Resources | This key term relates to personnel incentive schemes, staff recruitment, profiles, establishing an institutional culture and staff management. |
| Outreach See also market research |
Active attempt to find/interact with clients in selected populations, geographic catchment areas or targeted initiatives. This term will often relate to impact studies and would also include market research and delinquency studies. |
| Marketing | Communication of products and services to external client population through various means, eg. Advertisements, referrals, publications. |
| Governance | Anything related to the activities of governing the organization (eg. Board of directors, bylaws, and so on) |
| Sustainability | Organizational financial and operational self-sustainability meaning the ability to cover costs plus the imputed cost of capital and other expenses; long-term organizational viability. |
Term |
Calmeadow Definition |
| Products and Services | This includes practical manuals and institutional profiles for management, client monitoring and methodology development. |
| Loan Procedures | Lending policies and procedures, including client selection, paperwork, terms |
| Village Banking See also credit-plus
|
This is a type of lending founded by John Hatch that organizes people into groups based in their communities for lending. Some village banking programs focus on minimalist and other use credit ‘plus’ schemes (eg. Credit with Education) – programs that offer additional programmes or components with credit. |
| Individual Lending | Single-client lending where repayment relies solely on the individual. |
| Group of Groups Lending See also group lending, solidarity group lending, peer lending |
Grameen lending is a well known form of group of groups lending. It utilizes a combination of peer group methodology and village banking. |
| Business Development Services | Support services that contribute to the growth of enterprises (eg. business planning, client training, networking, marketing technical support) |
| Savings Development | Creation and process of client savings schemes (including mandatory savings schemes) |
| Other Financial Services Development | Innovative services for microcredit clients – eg. microleasing, insurance, money transfers |
| Client Graduation | Microenterprise growth to medium-size enterprises and financial self-sustainability. The dynamics of microenterprise change of time. |
| Transaction Costs | Imputed costs from organizational operations and activities in relation to client services and other organizational interactions (eg. Processing fees) |
| Peer Lending See also peer lending, solidarity group lending, group of groups lending |
Peer lending relies on the peer pressure of group members to act as a guarantee in place of more traditional forms of collateral and credit scoring. |
| Training | Staff training regarding microcredit methodologies, case management, etc. May be senior staff, field staff or loan officer training. This does not include client training which would be found under business development services. |
Term |
Calmeadow Definition |
| Monitoring and Reporting | Management of the organization’s internal processes. This key term is a general catch-all for the following key terms. It is more general than MIS because it deals with issues beyond the technical system of monitoring. |
| Management of Information Systems | The organization of institutional processes (primarily computer-oriented). |
| Audit/Control | Examination of organizational input/output cash flow (ie. internal audits, external audits, fraud investigation). |
| Performance Standards | Organizational performance indicators/ performance standards. |
| Software Programs | Microeconomic/microenterprise/microcredit-specific computer software programs (mostly financial, program planning and accounting-based). |
| Ratio Analysis | Financial ratio analysis tool that examines organizational sustainability, efficiency and portfolio quality. |
| Rating | This refers to external rating processes such as CAMEL. This is distinct form of audit which refers to internal review or analysis. |
Term |
Calmeadow Definition |
| Impact/Target Market | This category investigates the effects of programmatic activity on specified client populations. It also includes how to design programs for a specific client group. |
| Research Methods | Methods of quantitative/qualitative analysis, including subsector analysis, market research, action research, participatory methods, case-studies, client surveys, impact analysis, national surveys, and gender analysis |
| Post-Conflict/Disaster | These resources discuss microfinance and relief strategies in a post-war/post-natural disaster stage context when countries are economically vulnerable and unstable |
| Indigenous Populations | Focusing on the unique microfinancial needs of First Nations, Native Americans and Aboriginal populations |
| Islamic Communities | Communities of the Muslim faith (political and/or cultural) that practice Islamic microfinance methodologies regarding entitlement considerations (eg. musharaka, muradaba) because they reject the concept of fixed interest rates. |
| Resource-Dependent Communities | Ie. Primary resource-dependent communities, eg. fishing, forestry communities. These resources discuss microfinance as an alternative to activities that are heavily dependent on natural resources. |
| Gender Relations | Focuses on women’s bargaining power within the household, power imbalances between the genders, effects of microfinance on gender-related issues, empowerment and/or ill effects on women, girl/child issues. (Also cross-listed as ‘women’.) |
| Health | This literature deals with the relationship between microfinance and health (nutritional levels, infant and maternal health, disease and disability). It may relate to the effects of microfinance on health or how to design programs with these issues in mind. Freedom from Hunger's Credit with Education program would be found here as it uses micrcredit to improve nutritional levels and reduce infant mortality. |
| Rural | This literature deals with the unique design challenges of rural microending. It also discusses the differences between agricultural style lending and microfinance. |
| Urban (also peri-urban) | This literature discusses unique design issues related to microlending in urban (as compared to rural) cities, particularly inner-cities and peri-urban sprawl areas. |
| Street Vendors | This literature focuses on self-employed street vendors such as cart/sidewalk hawkers, market vendors |
| Youth | People between the ages of 15-24 (including issues such as street kids, exploitation, education, special services) |
| Disabled | This literature deals with how to provide microfinancial services for the physically and mentally disabled |
| Risk Reduction | |
| Poorest of the Poor | Dealing with those at the 5th income quintile, ie. those surviving on a day-to-day basis without ensured food, shelter, healthcare, education and so on. This literature discusses some of the trade-offs of a sustainbility approach for the most vulnerable. Some literature argues that the poorest of the poor should not receive microfinance but a blend of services. |
| Food Security | This
literature relates microfinance to household food security in terms of effects and design
issues. Discussions include caloric consumption, vulnerability, coping and livelihood strategies and deliberate actions of household decision-makers when faced with insufficiency. |
| Empowerment | Impact of design for political participation, legal awareness, ability to exercise personal and socio-political rights and freedoms. |
| Impact Level | The systemic level at which change can be quantified or qualified implying causality. |
| Household | Impact on income levels, education, cash flow and savings acquisition at the household level. |
| Environment | Impact of programs on the natural environment, creation of environmental initiatives. This literature includes environmentally-focused loan funds. |
| Microenterprise | Impact of credit/enterprise interventions on specific microenterprises regarding productivity, use of technology, sustainability, success rates, income levels, sale |
| New Immigrants | Impact and design issues for landed immigrants/refugees or displaced people |
| Welfare Recipients | Impact and design issues for people in receipt of social assistance money and other transfers |